When I get be tools or feel like I've progressed far enough in my skills I like to do a self portrait. Since I know my face better than anyone else's it's a good baseline for me. My wife took the reference picture and I think it's extra good.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtwezxozc22s

She's a badass. From Dune to Spiderman and much more.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtuilslkd22a

Admit it, you're reading this in his slow, deep, sultry voice. I know I'm typing in it.

What is your favorite role of his?

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtrx252z7c2f

I love him in Rob Roy, Pulp Fiction, and many other flicks.

Tried gray adjacent colors and I don't care as much for how it turned out. Thought it would add some warmth but it just looks weird to me.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtqycafgks2s

Back to measuring, drawing without it is exhausting like any new skill. This is slower but comfortable and more accurate.

I like the monochrome with the bold colorful background so I kept.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtpiojboms2b

Getting better at likeness without measuring. This one I inversed probably a dozen times before I started rendering. It helped a ton as recommended!

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mton6wdgx22o

As I shared in a few places in March I was laid off. It took 7 weeks to get a job offer. In that time we considered selling the house, moving someplace where we can live on a lot less, etc. We had 1.5 years before we had to make scary choices but still.

Today the COO said she's scheduling a meeting with me and the CEO (and a few others) to review my progress! Everyone including her is really excited about what we're accomplishing.

I'm doing tippy taps and thought I'd share!!!

While school girls scribbled their first name with a band members last name in their journal, Thanos was scribbling "tacocat", "Yo! Banana Boy.", and "Dammit, I'm mad!" His favorite time was probably 12:21 or maybe he used the 24 hour clock, if so maybe 15:51 was his jam?

This reference was fairly neutrally lite which made it hard to paint. A better likeness than the last few. Practice is helping.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtcqzxjymk2p

Of the speed paintings I'm happiest with this though without measuring its still not a good enough likeness. But until I get far enough in rendering I'm blind to the problem.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3mtc57hwwrs2g

My wife has proven to be really good at guessing movies by sound alone. I started tracking without her knowledge initially and we're half way through our movies and she's gotten 79.16% right within the first 10 seconds*.

To sleep we play a movie, audio only. If we wake up we'll restart the movie. It has to be a movie we like enough for it to be on but not so much we won't sleep. So it not every movie we own, just 106 movies on the list.

It takes is about 4 months to get through it and I decided this time I'd keep score without telling her as I'm always the one to put a movie on. A few weeks in she said I should start keeping score, I laughed and told her I already was.

I guess after 25+ years being either we know each other pretty well.

*The 10 seconds excludes intro sounds that aren't unique. Like the Disney sound.

Without measurement and without liquefy the subject is very misshapen (watch the timelapse for an example). I have this crooked bias I'm not sure how to solve for. If you solved this for yourself, how did you do it? I'm struggling. And it's really digging into my time budget for high quality renders in ~10 minutes.

Timelapse: https://bsky.app/profile/ballshapedman.bsky.social/post/3msxpsmomck2t